A Prisoner in the Shadowlands
by Random Mushroom
Summary: This is the story of a girl, who grew up as a prisoner in the Shadowlands
1. Prologue

I look at the man in front of me.  
"Please, tell me what happened", he whispers.  
"Who are you?" I ask.  
"Lief."  
Lief? The king wants to know what happened?  
"King Lief? Why do you want to know?"  
"If it wasn't for you, we would never have saved the prisoners. You kept them alive until I arrived. You should be honoured for it. Rather than stay at an inn, with hardly enough money to feed yourself."  
Should I tell him? I swore to tell no one, in case it was the Shadow Lord in disguise, but... He's the king. And I need the money.  
"Will you tell me?" He's looking at me. He looks trustworthy... But then again, if he is one of the Shadow Lord's minions in disguise, he would look trustworthy.  
"Think about it," he says. "I'll be back tomorrow, to see if you'll tell me."  
He is walking off. Giving me time to think this through. Would the Shadow Lord do that?  
I'm leaving the bar to sleep. I might as well. It's not like I can concentrate on anything. After talking to him.  
  
It's the next morning. I'm off to work as a blacksmith. Not many people want to be blacksmiths any more. They think of it as a royal occupation. They don't want to be seen as pretending to be nobles. I'm only a blacksmith because I can't find work anywhere else. Poverty is wide spread after the Shadow Lord taking over.  
On my way I see two kids, playing happily. They don't look scared or hungry. I wish my childhood was like that. But I grew up as one of the Shadow Lord's prisoners. And we were always scared or hungry.  
Around the next corner, I see a lady I knew from when I was a prisoner.  
"Hello, Natalie," she says. "How are you, today?"  
"Good. I'm glad you got back here safely. I wasn't sure if you'd made it."  
"Thanks. I'm glad you made it back, as well. After all, we'd all be the Shadow Lord's slaves if it wasn't for you! See you soon."  
"See you!"  
I continue on my way.  
  
Over lunch, I fall asleep. I have a strange dream. No, a nightmare.  
I see a forest. It's burning. In the middle there is a meadow, with a plant in it. In the plant is a golden liquid. The meadow catches alight. The plant is burned.  
Sudden, I realise where this is. It's the Forest of Silence! And this is where the...  
  
I wake up. Or am woken up. My master is standing over me. Great. I slept through my entire lunch hour. I didn't even get a chance to eat my lunch! And my master wants me to get back to work. Bliss.  
  
I'm black at the inn that I'm staying at. Waiting for the king to come back. I still don't know whether I should tell him the story. The story of what happened in the Shadowlands.  
The king comes in. I won't tell him. It's him, it's only curiosity. It won't matter if I tell him. If it's the Shadow Lord though... He could cause all kinds of trouble.  
The king comes in. I open my mouth to tell him that I won't tell him anything, but I find myself telling him my entire life story. Everything. 


	2. Chapter 1The Prison Compound

I was born in the Shadowlands. My mother died having me. I don't know who my father is. My mother had a reputation for sleeping around.  
I was taken care of by a kind lady. I can't remember her name. All I can remember is how kind she was to me. I think she also took care of other orphans. But I'm not sure. I was too young to remember.  
She was killed by the Shadowlord. She wanted to help someone he was going to kill. It didn't work. He killed her, as well.  
From then on, I was alone. I took care of myself. Quite an achievement, considering that I was five, at the time. Some men, claiming to be my father offered to help. I never trusted any of them, after the first one tried to use me as a slave.  
I heard other slaves talking about a land called Deltora. They wanted be there. According to them, it was a land where you're always happy. You can do whatever you want, go where ever you want and say whatever you want. You're never scared or hungry. I couldn't know. I'd never been there.  
Strange how that now that I'm in Deltora, it doesn't seem like that. I'm scared of the Shadowlord and hungry, because I don't have enough money to feed myself. But back then, it seemed like a paradise.  
But it's better than the Shadowlands.  
  
When I was eight, some of the prisoners decided to start a school for us kids. We all liked school. It's not like there was much else to do.  
They taught us all kinds of things. Like how to read and write. What the world is like. But they taught us one thing that they shouldn't have taught us. Unarmed combat.  
It would have been okay anywhere else. But we were prisoners. And generally, captors don't like having prisoners who know how to fight.  
They disbanded the school. They took our teachers away. We were never told what happened. We didn't understand when adults said things like "They were hung!" or "I told them not to teach them that!"  
As you can see, life in the Shadowlands wasn't fun.  
I missed school more than the other kids. They all had family or friend to talk to. I was a loner. So, I was lonely. And bored. There aren't may things for loners to do, when they are in cages, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There isn't that much for anyone to do.  
I took to eavesdropping. I heard kids my age pretending to be free in Deltora. I heard teenaged girls talking about who they have a crush on. I heard the adults talk about all kind of things. Mostly about Deltora, but I heard enough other stuff to know that some slaves were taken away by guard and forced to fight monsters. They were in constant danger, and never survived for long, but they were better cared for than us. I decided that I wanted to be one of them. I wanted to be a gladiator.  
  
Normally, people have to be forced to be gladiators. They ask for volunteers, but no one says anything, so they take people away, against their will.  
A grey guard came up to our cage.  
"Any volunteers?" he said.  
I stood up. I walked forward.  
Everyone stared.  
"You can't do this!" begged a girl my age. One who'd teased me for having no friends the day before. I ignored her and continued forward.  
They didn't have to take anyone by force because of me.  
  
They took me to the cells, where gladiators live. And they started to teach me how to be a gladiator. 


End file.
